April 30, 2007

Yes we got a truck load of the gardener’s gold, compost. It was dropped on our curb Friday am in the pouring rain! I would like to thank all of the dedicated gardeners who came, saw and conquered the mountain that was there; Tony, Al, D’arcy, Claudia, Chris, Vinny, Rochelle and of course I was there too. It was hard to tell where the rain stopped and the sweat started. I must say that we all pulled together as a team, and before sundown the street and sidewalk were hosed clean.

We are moving right along at the Garden, we got a late start (with the new construction going on in the next lot) but we will be the best we can be. I have lots of Ideas for the garden and am working on some new plans, we need a butterfly garden (don’t we all?) so I have some great plot plans for such, I will post them here for you too, start yours today!

April 23, 2007

What did you do today to honor Mother Earth?? The weather here in NYC this weekend was glorious! 70’s all weekend and they are saying 80’s for Monday! This weekend I thru myself into our Garden, I really have not done too much since I came back from Rome. So, to me I had a lot of time to make up for. I truly feel like I am in my element, I so love playing in the dirt! I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

April 21, 2007

We Found The Bed! Look there really was a bed and a loveseat! I was so happy to find this! Now she can sleep in her bed again, she was sleeping on the couch in the living room. We attacked some other rooms too, keep watching for future posts!

April 20, 2007

You Might Not Ever GuessCaptain Kangaroo passed away on January 23, 2004 at age 76 , which is odd, because he always looked to be 76. (DOB: 6/27/27 ) His death reminded me of the following story. Some people have been a bit offended that the actor, Lee Marvin, is buried in a grave alongside 3 and 4 star generals at Arlington National Cemetery .. His marker gives his name, rank (PFC) and service (USMC). Nothing else. Here’s a guy who was only a famous movie star who served his time, why the heck does he rate burial with these guys? Well, following is the amazing answer: I always liked Lee Marvin, but didn’t know the extent of his Corps experiences.

In a time when many Hollywood stars served their country in the armed forces often in rear echelon posts where they were carefully protected, only to be trotted out to perform for the cameras in war bond promotions,

Lee Marvin was a genuine hero. He won the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima There is only one higher Naval award… the Medal Of Honor

If that is a surprising comment on the true character of the man, he credits his sergeant with an even greater show of bravery.
Dialog from “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”: His guest was Lee Marvin Johnny said, “Lee, I’ll bet a lot of people are unaware that you were a Marine in the initial landing at Iwo Jima ..and that during the course of that action you earned the Navy Cross and were severely wounded.”

“Yeah, yeah… I got shot square in the bottom and they gave me the Cross for securing a hot spot about halfway up Suribachi. Bad thing about getting shot up on a mountain is guys getting’ shot hauling you down. But, Johnny, at Iwo I served under the bravest man I ever knew… We both got the cross the same day, but what he did for his Cross made mine look cheap in comparison. That dumb guy actually stood up on Red beach and directed his troops to move forward and get the hell off the beach. Bullets flying by, with mortar rounds landing everywhere and he stood there as the main target of gunfire so that he could get his men to safety. He did this on more than one occasion because his men’s safety was more important than his own life. That Sergeant and I have been lifelong friends. When they brought me off Suribachi we passed the Sergeant and he lit a smoke and passed it to me, lying on my belly on the litter and said, where’d they get you Lee?’ Well Bob… if you make it home be fore me, tell Mom to sell the outhouse!” Johnny, I’m not lying, Sergeant Keeshan was the bravest man I ever knew. The Sergeant’s name is Bob Keeshan. You and the world know him as Captain Kangaroo.”

On another note, there was this wimpy little man (who just passed away) on PBS, gentle and quiet. Mr. Rogers is another of those you would least suspect of being anything but what he now portrays to our youth. But Mr. Rogers was a U.S.Navy Seal, combat-proven in Vietnam with over twenty-five confirmed kills to his name. He wore a long-sleeved sweater on TV, to cover the many tattoos on his forearm and biceps. He was a master in small arms and hand-to-hand combat, able to disarm or kill in a heartbeat

After the war Mr. Rogers became an ordained Presbyterian minister an d therefore a pacifist. Vowing to never harm another human and also dedicating the rest of his life to trying to help lead children on the right path in life. He hid away the tattoos and his past life and won our hearts with his quiet wit and charm. America’s real heroes don’t flaunt what they did; they quietly go about their day-to-day lives, doing what they do best They earned our respect and the freedoms that we all enjoy. Look around and see if you can find one of those heroes in your midst. Often, they are the ones you’d least suspect, but would most like to have on your side if anything ever happened Take the time to thank anyone that has fought for our freedom. With encouragement they could be the next Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers

I did not know any of this till today, thought that I would share this with you

April 18, 2007

I just do not know what to say of the events of the last few days, except to say the world has gone mad! What has happened to us all??? My personal defense mechanism will not let my mind dwell on these horrific thoughts and images. Let’s go away from the dark side…. I offer some other pleasant views to fill our minds with, come on in the waters fine…

April 17, 2007

This first one is a lovely couple in their late 80s. They had 3 apartments and consolidated them into one 1 bedroom apt here in NYC. They neglected to weed things out before they brought them all into this one bedroom. The Mrs. has more clothes (she could change her outfit 10 times a day and still not wear everything she owns!) than anyone I know! She has no less than 12 wardrobe boxes of party dresses from the
Florida apt. There are hundreds of boxes in this apt, which make small goat paths to get around. It reminds me of the Collier brothers (anyone remember them?). I so worry that a wall of boxes will fall on them and crush them! I will be looking for consignment shops to put some of these beauties on sale (any help here would be greatly appreciated!) This has to be one of my largest undertakings ever.

The other is an overwhelmed, overworked woman. She has good intentions but no time to follow through with her ideas. Exhausted at night, she can only fall asleep and dream of what her place could and should be. We will change that into reality ASAP!

Come along for the ride and enjoy the adventure. One promises to be a true archeological dig, and I am sure there will be lots of gems to be discovered.

April 15, 2007

There were so many fun, exciting and unusual sights, it is really hard to show them all. Plus can you believe it; I ran out of memory for my digital camera….never again! I am off to B&H to buy more!!!

This is the largest Mortadella that I have ever seen; just one slice would make 2 sandwiches.

This guy was so skilled with a knife, he sliced it so thin!

We thought that it would be so fun to have our picture taken in this curbside photo booth.

It looked so innocent from the outside…looks can be deceiving though, as our noses soon found out! You can only imagine how the picture turned out, we laughed so loud and hard, we turned many heads.

This was a great fountain with a great story. It is the fountain of the four turtles, and here is its story. Once upon a time, a beautiful woman lived across this square. On the other side of the square lived a young man who wanted to marry this young woman. The young woman’s mother did not like this young man for her daughter (he was a gambler!). To sway the young woman’s heart he had this fountain constructed overnight, so that when she awoke she would see it from her bedroom window. She did, it worked and she married him. Now here is the twist, later she realized her mother was right; he was not the right man for her. She divorced him, moved home & bricked up her windows so as to never look upon the fountain again! You can still see the bricked up windows!!

April 13, 2007

You learn a lot when you are traveling. About yourself, your traveling companions, the place you are traveling in, the people who live there, as well as the other people who like to travel there, and yes, about travel itself. Yes, my recent trip was chocked full of such lessons. I hope that I have learned well from each and every lesson, and that the knowledge learned will be stored forever in my memory banks…to be pulled out at the appropriate time when needed in the future.The first of my (hard learned) lessons is to bring at least one change of clothes with you on the plane as carry on! Then the worries of lost luggage are for the moment, not so hard to take.Another lesson is Holidays; whose holiday is it, when and what do they do to observe/celebrate it. Is the whole country on holiday as well? Does this play some religious importance as well?Research and do some homework before, it will pay off. Did you know that the Monday following Easter is ‘Little Easter’ and also observed as a holiday in Italy? I do now.I am not a big fan of large crowds; you will never find me at Time Square on New Years Eve. The streets of Rome during Easter week were just a sea of people! Some of the major downtown streets were closed to traffic to allow the mass of people some free space to walk. It had a very carnival feel, and the weather was perfect! The temps were in the upper 60s.

Walking through the BorgheseGardens was breathtaking, the spring blooms on the trees and the sculptures everywhere. Watching the Romans at play and rest in the park was great fun; from the teens playing football (soccer), the sun worshipers, the young lovers kissing, older people reading on the benches, to the family asleep on a large air mattress in the shade. Vendors dot the scenery selling everything from sunglasses to gelato to balloons. We began all of our walking jaunts starting in the gardens.The famous sights were just packed with people.

The Trevi Fountain was 30 people deep! We did make it to the fountain by going around to the left hand corner and tossed our coins.

The Pantheon was actually open to the public; they were having Easter Sunday mass there the following day. It is very impressive; the red marble there is the rarest in the world!

The Spanish Steps were celebrating April with a gorgeous blanket of azaleas in large terracotta pots. They were also covered with tourist, which made it tricky maneuvering down them with out stepping on any fingers.

I must say that I do want to go back to Rome again! Yes, yes, yes I did truly love it there! Equipped with my newly learned lessons and some tried and true old ones in my bag I will be set. There is still so much more to learn and explore! It is so large and lovely the short time that I did have to explore was just a drop in the bucket! I will check the calendar for any holidays that are coming up and miss them completely! Try not to go when there is a crush of people, and of course pack a change of clothes in my carry on!Arriva derche Roma…..I’ll be back!!!

April 11, 2007

Your mind just reels at all the sights! The grandeur, the beauty, the age, the obvious love of life that has endured for centuries, this is what Rome said to me.

Many deep felt thank yous to my gracious hostess Sheilagh (who moved to Rome in ’06), who was kind enough to allow me to stay at her beautiful apartment, as well as serve as tour guide plus interpreter.Thank goodness for her expertise in the native tongue! It came in so handy w/ Alitalia who lost my luggage; I did finally get it back…20 hours before I left to come back to the USA! (They will be getting a letter from me!)

As I decompress and get back to normal a floodgate of memories will come back to me, and of course I will share! I must admit that seeing the NYC skyline did fill me with a warm sense of its good to be home! My Garden here is calling my name, not to mention all the phone messages, etc.